pod bites: Creative Soundscapes with Margaret Soraya
“The one big thing is that you will evolve. You don't always get the podcast that you want when you start it. Don't look for perfection when you start, you're just going to have to sort of dive in there and let it evolve, work with it as it moves forwards.”
Our featured podcast host in this episode is Margaret Soraya, host of Creative Soundscapes.
Margaret is a photographer, artist, retreat host and podcaster living on the Isle of Harris, off the western coast of Scotland.
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Margaret’s links
The podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/creative-soundscapes-with-margaret-soraya/id1553797842
Online Creative Haven community: https://creative-haven.newzenler.com
The instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margaretsoraya/
Margaret’s podcast picks:
The Diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-diary-of-a-ceo-with-steven-bartlett/id1291423644
Prefer to read? Read the transcript below.
Got a show you’d love to hear on my podcast? Tell me about it!
[00:00:00] Welcome to pod bites, where we go behind the scenes with podcasters. My name is Alison Fraser and today's guest is Margaret Sariah, who is the host of the creative soundscapes podcast.
Alison: Welcome on to the podcast, Margaret.
Margaret: Thank you. Thank you for having me on here with you.
Alison: So Creative Soundscapes, can you tell us what your podcast is about?
Margaret: Yes. So I'm, I'm a landscape photographer and I'm also very much into the wellbeing and the being outdoors and that kind of mindfulness.
So my podcast was originally started to interview photographers, but it's evolved. A little bit into more about, um, well being, more about being outdoors, about health and, um, any lives, creative lives. So the people that [00:01:00] I'm now interviewing are creatives of any, any type. So like writers or artists or photographers.
So it's kind of changed over the few years that it's been running and it's, it's just coming nicely to, into its own, I would say.
Alison: What was it that got you started? You know, what, how does a landscape photographer go from taking photos to then capturing things on audio?
Margaret: Yeah, it's quite an interesting question.
I think it's just because I came at it from a business perspective. So I took Cathy Heller's Made To Do this course, and that was during COVID so during that period that we had the lockdown for quite a few months, and I was off work for about a year so she had actually just told us, she basically told us to start a podcast, and that was part of the course.
Sure, I just did it because I thought, well, she knows what she's talking about. So just go along with it and just, just get started because, um, at the time she was saying that it was, it was up and coming [00:02:00] and I could see that it was up and coming. So, um, that's really the reason that I started it was coming definitely from a business angle and from the desire to just want to be, to be more present online.
Alison: I've had a listen to a couple of your episodes and it sounds really peaceful and just quite gentle on the ears.
Margaret: Yeah, and, and you know, that wasn't intentional actually, and I think it was just something that, that kind of happened a lot of people. Um, I've made comments about my voice being quite soothing and I didn't really realize that.
So I think, um, that that's just coming out more and more in, in the podcast because that's me. So as, as I become, um, more and more in line with who I am and able to just, to just naturally bring that into the podcast and that's always going to happen, isn't it? So it's quite, it's quite nice to hear that.
Alison: You live on the Isle of Harris, which, for some [00:03:00] listeners who may not know, is reasonably remote, I would say. Is that something you would agree with?
Margaret: I would say it's very remote. Actually, I don't know what it's like with you in New Zealand, but it's a very small island. It is only, we've got two boats that come in and out.
Sometimes during the winter the boats decide not to go in and out at all because of the weather. And I, I live in on the east side of the island, which is. It's very, it's very unpopulated and, um, just stunning it. So I'm surrounded by croft land and sheep and seals and water. And it's just, uh, again, probably very much in line with who I am and what I believe in, in life.
And it just, I've only just moved here. I moved here in March and it just feels like I've come full circle now. So this, this is how everything's working well together. Even down to bringing that into the podcast, I've now started doing weekly, uh, bi weekly episodes [00:04:00] where it's just me out in the landscape talking about a subject that's very, very recent, but that's been brought on by living here and feeling like, feeling inspired by being living here and having, having the space to, to do that.
And This is where the soundscapes came in. So, to to bringing in some of the sounds that are happening last time out, out and about recording.
Alison: What feedback do you get from listeners, you know, who are able to experience Harris through, you know, your recordings?
Margaret: So, I, I mean, I'm just really starting to get more and more feedback now actually.
'cause I think Podcasting's one of those things where it's a funny thing, you record and then you pop it out there. And it's not like social media where people go, oh, that was a great episode. Or, you know, I, I love that you just. Sometimes you just get nothing. And I think I just kind of had radio silence for a couple of years, you know, and, um, it's one of those things that you can see why so many people drop out or stop doing the podcast, don't you?
Cause cause it's, um, quite [00:05:00] labor intensive, but it's also that lack of feedback. So probably in the last six months is when I've been getting now, Instagram about how, uh,
Uplifting it is or soothing it is or how they people connect with what I'm saying because everything I'm trying to do really comes from being honest and open and authentic. So I think that people then kind of. Kind of when they feel that it really helps people and then they respond to me. So it's really nice.
It's, it's really wonderful to get messages now saying, um, that helped me mostly. That's, that's really what I'm getting now that helped me through this, or that makes me understand this. And that's just amazing. It's amazing feeling.
Alison: So anyone listening, if you listen to a podcast, perhaps, you know, just give some feedback to the host.
If you do enjoy listening to it.[00:06:00]
Do you have any memorable moments that have come about as a result of your podcast?
Margaret: Memorable moments? Um, probably... Yes, probably the most memorable moment was it just a couple of weeks ago actually. And because I started decided to do these podcasts with people that I was bumping into in hours as well so we're in the middle of the summer season over here.
So there's quite a lot of visitors coming over, and I've had an exhibition on so I've said to people, if you're coming over to look at my exhibition, just get in touch and Um, we can meet up and have a coffee and I met Adele Warnertate, who does a little bit of YouTube and I said to her, well, I didn't know, I didn't know Adele.
I said to her, why don't we do a little podcast together and we'll meet up tomorrow and we'll go for a walk on the beach and we'll do a podcast. Anyway, it turned out that it was raining and [00:07:00] there was quite a lot of midges as well. So we met in our vans and I said, just jump in the van and we'll just record in the back of the van we can do.
But I've got whippet. And she normally she just sits in the front of the van quite happily, but I didn't sort of factor in the fact that she loves people and she kind of gets excitable. So we're recording this podcast in the back of my van. And she started to just sort of jump on the surfaces and started like licking Adele's face and trying to eat the microphone and we just we just carried on, we just carried on regardless.
And I kind of incorporated it into the podcast and. Uh, now when I'm doing these ones that are out and about, I just let her do her thing and I just explain to people if she's doing something daft, like, you know, knocking me over, which she, she often likes, you know, the, the dead cat microphones that you get, she likes the fur cause she thinks they're like rabbits or something.
So she does stupid stuff. And I've kind of just [00:08:00] incorporated that now into the podcast because I thought, well, you know what, it's real. So I'm not trying to be. As perfect as it used to be probably but that that was a very memorable moment I don't think I'll ever forget, like having to hold her back whilst trying to record a podcast.
Alison: Well, I suppose she's part of the show, isn't she?
Margaret: She definitely is. Yeah. Yeah.
Alison: Do you have any tips for beginners someone who might be thinking about doing a podcast or has just started podcasting, what would be your top tip?
Margaret: Um, I think, I think just, you know, just persist. I think that's, that's the one big thing is that you will evolve.
You can't, you don't always get the podcast that you want. When you start it. So when I started mine, it was interviews with photographers via, you know, internet recordings and three years on, it's really going down the right route now and really evolving but it wouldn't have evolved if I hadn't [00:09:00] gone through those times at the beginning where they weren't quite so I'm not saying they weren't good, they were interesting, but they weren't right for me.
What I'm doing now is right for me, but I had to start working through it and get more confident because as you, the more that you record, it's like everything in life, the more you record, the more confident you get. And then, then you start to think, oh, let's evolve this a little bit. How can we be a little bit different?
How can we be a little bit more in line with my business or my personality or what people are wanting? So I, I really do believe in. That idea of, of practice, but also that don't look for perfection when you start, you're just going to have to sort of dive in there and, and let it, let it evolve and, and, and work with it as it, as it moves forwards.
Alison: Very wise tips. Just get started. Yeah, you mentioned before that you started your podcast because it was to do with your business, like from doing that course. So are [00:10:00] you, have you incorporated your podcast into your business somewhere, or how does that fit in? How do the two coexist?
Margaret: Yeah, interesting isn't it that the, um, you'd think that maybe there was a specific reason that I started it or that it was directly earning something but it isn't actually.
Reason that it works for my business is that now I can tell you now I'm definitely getting people booking me for my, I run retreats and workshops on the Isle of Harris and I teach and I've got a membership. So I've got all sorts of things going on. I've got lots of strands of the business. Um, I also run a festival every year.
So I just sort of chat about that sometimes Massive hard sales, but I'll mention it, you know, I'll mention it, but mostly it's that getting to know me. So it's very intimate podcasting. People are sitting there listening to you [00:11:00] for half an hour, whatever, however long it is, but they're listening to you. So they really get to know you.
And when you get to know somebody, then you're interested in working with them further. So there's that indirect link, if you like, um, to. Boosting the business. And I think now I would say, um, probably hand in hand with Instagram, it's probably the biggest, um, source of, of, um, new clients that I have. So it's actually, yeah, I mean, that's just fantastic, isn't it?
And I am looking at. sponsorship now, but I'm kind of just battling my way through that. I'm not quite sure how to do that or, you know, whether that's right for me yet, but, um, I'll probably just keep an eye on that for a little while.
Alison: It sounds like it's working out for you just the way you're doing it right now.
Margaret: Yeah, it might, it might be that actually, it might be that that is just that, that bringing new [00:12:00] leads in and bringing new clients in and, and people just. Getting to know me more and understanding what I'm about more and trusting, trusting me more just by listening to me every week, um, is, is, that's just an incredible thing to be able to do.
Alison: It’s that know, like and trust factor, I've heard it said that it takes seven touches before someone becomes a customer. And I signed up to someone's membership on the back of two or three episodes of her podcast. None of, not even though I had signed up to it, it was the podcast content that, that had me sold.
Margaret: That makes sense, actually, yeah, because I'd probably be the same. In fact, I've done the same, actually. I've signed up to a membership because of a podcast. Yes, that's true. It's true. It's a good way of looking at it.
Alison: And a final question for you, Margaret. What podcasts do you like listening to at the moment?
Can you [00:13:00] just name one or two that are on your playlist?
Margaret: Yeah, so I'll just, just while it's in my, my head, the Art Juice podcast. So that's the membership I actually signed up to. I love Art Juice. It's just two, artists talking between themselves. And the other one that's actually top of my playlist at the moment is, um, A Diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett because he's just amazing.
Alison: Is there anything else that you wanted to share about your podcasting experience?
Margaret: Um, I just think, I think it's one of the most incredible things that you can do. And I think if you really, if you, if you've got an inkling to do it, then, you know, just get on with it and don't worry too much about the, um, I think this is how I got stuck in too much about the artwork and the name. I've changed the name.
I've only changed it once, but I've changed that. And I think just having that platform, it's, it's incredible these days that we, we can. create a platform for ourselves, [00:14:00] we could communicate with how many people in the world, you know, and it's just such a wonderful opportunity. And if you've got something to share, um, you can really affect people and help people through broadcasting.
And I do think that the, um, the technical sometimes people feel. That it's a challenge maybe, and I just, so everybody knows I am terrible with technicals and I'm not, I'm not somebody that really, you know, just kind of embraces new software, new gear. Um, but, but all I did was learn, learn as I went and ask people.
So I had a little bit of, I just found somebody who would help me set it all up and then, or just point me in the right direction. And just so don't let that kind of. You know, put you off, but, but just briefly on the, on that point, the podcasts that I do that are out on the beach and the solar podcasts that sound pretty, pretty good.
Actually, they're done with my iPhone, and a little mic that goes over the end, and [00:15:00] Alan dictaphone which is a, an app for the iPhone so literally. walking along talking into the phone and the quality I found is actually pretty good now. So, um, yeah, the technique don't, don't let them put you off, but, but just get started, just get started and you'll find that it'll be worth it.
Um, you know, it takes a bit of persistence, but it will be worth it.
Alison: Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on, Margaret. It's been awesome to hear about your podcast and, and living on Harris and the tribulations of recording with your whippet.
Margaret: Thank you. Thank you for asking me.
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